Effects of therapist title on competence as perceived by a psychiatric sample.

Abstract

A study on how perceptions of a therapist's competence is affected by the therapist's title of address was conducted. The subjects were 82 psychiatric inpatients (58 males and 24 females) at a state mental hospital. The subjects watched a brief videotaped segment of an interchange between a male therapist and a male client. Each of four groups of subjects (consisting of both males and females) saw a copy of the same taped segment, but with a different title labeled on the screen. The first group saw a tape with the therapist titled "Doctor"; the second group saw a tape with the therapist titled "Mister"; the third group saw the tape in which the therapist was identified by name only; and the fourth group of subjects saw a tape with no label on the screen. After viewing the tape, the subjects rated the therapist on 11 Likert-type scales. Ratings were then compared among the four groups and between male and female subjects. Analysis of the variance on each of the 11 characteristics showed one significant title effect on one characteristic, but it was not a very strong effect. There was no significant effect for the interaction of subject gender and therapist title on the subjects' ratings on any of the 11 therapist qualities. There was a significant effect for subject gender on ratings of two therapist qualities, with females rating the therapist higher overall on these two qualities. These results showed that the therapist's title had no significant bearing on ratings of his competence, but that females rated him higher on two of the 11 qualities than did males.